Will an incoming Trump administration be better for AI regulation than its predecessor? The answer is likely “yes,” but that does not mean the Trump team will fully embrace free markets on AI policy.
Even before ChatGPT alerted everyone to rapid advances in artificial intelligence technology, then-President Donald Trump had already signed an executive order in 2019 to strengthen American leadership in AI. In that executive order, Trump ordered federal agencies to create standards, make available federal datasets for training, and to remove unnecessary regulation through collaborating with experts in academia and the private sector. All commendable. But a lot has changed since then.
With AI conversations now mainstream and software capable of sophisticated speech and image recognition, artificial intelligence policy now grabs a lot more attention, which makes it ripe for political pandering and overly cautious regulatory schemes that risk stifling innovation.
With rapid advancements in AI tech more apparent, President Biden issued an AI executive order of his own in 2023 that required extensive documentation, paperwork, and regulatory oversight. President Trump ran on undoing the Biden executive order and instead promoting AI that is “rooted in free speech and human flourishing.” Such sloganeering is a good sign, but it’s too soon to tell exactly how Trump will govern AI from the oval office.
But we can tell a lot by who is hired to staff the administration. As the saying goes, personnel is policy. Administration positions selections will give more insight into how AI will be managed.
Trump’s transition team includes managing director of the AI company, Scale AI, Michael Kratsios, and generally pro-market J.D. Vance advisor, Gail Slater. Both Kratsios and Slater have strong backgrounds in technology and policy with a penchant for streamlining regulations and unleashing the power of the market to advance new technologies.
Kratsios served as Trump’s chief technology officer during his first term, and was also one of the authors of Trump’s pro-market AI executive order.
Slater, on the other hand, is a Vance economic advisor from the Senate. She also served as a special advisor to Trump where she helped create his first administration’s policies on 5G, which emphasized deregulation and permitting reforms for 5G infrastructure.
These two selections together forecast a light-touch AI regulatory approach, unlike the heavy-handed, all-of-government approach in the Biden administration.
In addition to his transition team, Trump recently announced David Sacks will serve as the AI and Crypto Czar. Sacks has argued against regulating technology in its infancy, suggesting a more pro-market approach to AI innovation. While this is a good sign, in his announcement, Trump announced, “[Sacks] will safeguard Free Speech online, and steer us away from Big Tech bias and censorship.” What exactly this means for AI policymaking is still to be seen—but it is likely that AI speech may become a battleground during the Trump administration.
And then there’s incoming Vice President J.D. Vance.
Vance has long been involved in the technology sector as a venture capitalist and has expressed support for AI specifically. He is generally skeptical of overregulation of AI despite his mixed views on tech regulation in general, and clearly believes some of the AI safety fears are overblown. For example, then-Senator Vance argued in a Senate subcommittee hearing that many safety fears proposed by AI companies are less about public safety and more about companies protecting themselves from competition.
As Soon-to-be VP Vance rightly stated in that hearing, “if we do something under duress from the current incumbents, it’s going to be to the advantage of those incumbents and not to the advantage of the American consumer.”
Past behavior is often the best indicator of future conduct—but with rapid, public advances in AI technology sparking national debate, the politics of AI are different today than when President first assumed office. As AI develops and is further integrated into everyday life, the politics may change once more. Incoming President Trump should heed the advice of then-Senate Vance and let market competition guide AI advancement.
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